Comments

To me, video, Blu-ray and DVD on PowerDVD look the best out of any other video player out there and I tried them all: Total MediaTheatre, WinDVD, Zoom Player, KMPlayer, Media Player Classic HC, VLC among others.

I would have given it a 10 but new version 11 cannot play VP6-FLV, it's not supported, ridiculous considering the majority of FLV's on the internet are VP6. Otherwise, it can play any kind of video, MKV, AVI, DivX, ASF, MP4, MPG, WMV, FLV-AVC/AAC, Silverlight. The playback of high definition 1080p and 720p AVC/H.264 MKV's especially look great, sharp, crystal clear, vibrant colors and if you have good speakers, the DTS multi-channel surroud sound and even AC-3 Dolby sound like you're in a movie theatre. Subtitles internal or external display clear and crisp: SRT, UTF-8, PGS, etc. except that VobSub subtitles, like those created by HandBrake encodes are not supported, another reason I didn't give it a 10.

It works right out the box, you don't have to go crazy adjusting the settings like other video players out there for simple things; it starts up maximized instead of in a tiny little window, aspect ratio is automatically set according to the source, when watching a movie it automatically goes to full screen mode after a few seconds and a if you just move the mouse a little it will set it back to normal display, pressing the keyboard up/down buttons skips through the movie forward or back, space bar pauses/plays, pressing the "C" key captures a screen shot, etc. are already set up, no need to play around with settings.

It has a built in video library, just click on the Video tab and the directory where your videos are display in thumbnail or list form. Just double click to open, or it can open a video from Windows Explorer as well. It integrates seemless with Windows Media Center and you can easily set up a remote control device to use with it just by paring it using a 4-digit code PowerDVD lists on the Device Tab an dconfigure it.

As far as pictures and music go, it has capabilities for that but I prefer Winamp for my music and ACDSee Pro for my pictures.

PowerDVD 11 Ultra is the best video player for viewing high definition videos, Blu-ray or DVD's on your PC. But you be the judge, Compare and see and listen for yourself.

I still use PowerDVD version 5.0 with my XP Home op system which works OK to play ordinary DVD movies on my computer, to flip through the chapters of a movie, and such simple basic operations. I don't try to play .avi or other formats. I tried a later version of PowerDVD which didn't work right. They started bloating PowerDVD with version 7.0 and later although I don't know the exact sizes of the latest versions because I have no reason to try them. The introduction of Blu-Ray makes it too complicated for me wee noodle, so I'll stick with DVDs.

Payed $100 for Power DVD Ultra 8, 6 months later bought a new tv that supports HDMI 1.3 power dvd ultra 8 only supports HDMI 1.2,For $100 you would think you would get decent support you dont.
You have to pay another $100 for Power DVD 9 which supports HDMI 1.3.Swore I would never buy this program again.Get it from a P2P site,far better value, I will willing pay for programs that offer decent support.

I just tried the new 7.0 trial. The dvd I played was badly
pixelated. So I tried different dvd's still the same. So I
installed it on my notebook. The Problem was the same.
Just going keep using 6.0 for now.

Has new features that the average user will never use. Do we really need support for MPEG-4 AVC (H.264)? That file format is still in it's infancy. Oh, and the picture quality while viewing DVD's is the same as 6.

If you already have 6 installed on your computer, don't bother with this bloated mess!

This is my favorite software DVD Player.Very good picture quality and seems very reliable,it dont keep crashing.It supports quite a lot of audio and video formats as well.
The only thing I dislike is that it is becoming more bloated.

Appalling, rubbish and untimately frustrating. Every time I try to play a Copy Protected DVD (that I bought out of a shop, mind you, not copied at all) it refuses to play it because its afraid that I'm going to connect my TV-Out to a VCR in an effort to violate copyright laws. I have absolutely no intention on making inferior VHS copies, so it's extra bad. The interface is nice, it works quite well when it does actually work, but if you want to play anything except a DVD or (S)VCD' forget it, AVI's etc. The aspect ration is almost always wrong and won't let you change it. I'm disgusted with it and thank god that I didn't pay anything for it as it came free with my DVD Drive.

I'm not very enamored with the picture quality PowerDVD displays, and frankly never have been (this includes both with or without hardware acceleration). What this player has is good sound options (like Dolby Headphone), although they cost and cost plenty.

IMO players like this will soon be ousted by freeware alternatives, as interest in PC video continues to grow.

It does its job well but you need to install a ac3 filter for Xvid movies with ac3 audio. Its not a real media player because it doesnt handle streaming content. Gabest Media Player Classic has more options and plays streaming content and can replace Windows Media Player and best of all its freeware.

It's hard to praise this tool too highly. It works well when playing commercial DVDs, and just as well when playing your own DVD authoring project off hard disk. I've found that if your self authored DVD doesn't play correctly in PowerDVD then it won't play correctly in a standalone DVD player either - knowing this saves a lot of DVD burn time!

Also very useful is the high quality directx drivers which it installs, which means that a lot of third party freeware tools (eg. IfoEdit) will find these drivers and work well on your PC.

My copy came bundled with my PC - so the price was right as well! Don't even think of using anything else!

I like this player very much. I gave a 9 on functionality because it sometimes freezes on some movie that are scratched up. I think it is great. HAs dvd or CD/File mode. One of the few programs that plays VCD DAT files (easily too). Got it free and like that it is easy to use. Right click on screen and you can got to the chapters. Wish they made a remote control for it and a way to fast forward all those preview frames on some dvds.
The picture can be adjusted 4 ways, has 4 skins, and it even has parental control. The full screen is awesome if you have a 1.8ghz pc. It is true full screen covers the whole monitor.

Used to have 4.0XP. 5 came with my new computer, even after the latest build patch, it doesn't play The Prince of Egypt VCD (2-disc promo with I Love CCM Remakes and Newsongs collection, Korean). It's the only VCD I have to test. Neither disc plays. Before the latest patch, the picture broke up (high error rate it appeared to be, like a digital satellite system in the middle of extremely heavy rain). After the patch, it just doesn't play at all. Works fine in Windows Media Player. And PowerDVD does work great for DVDs, so I guess that's what is important...

Great Tool ! ! ! Unless of course you live in the US and have a problem. You can call for support ! ! that is, you can call Taiwan or Europe ... You can go online ! ! ! but ... you wont find your answers there because their support pages suck and have few items of interest. This really is a great tool, I only wish I could use it on the machine I want. I hope the best for anyone using the program, and hope you never have any problems.

Really nice and thoro. My only problem is that their own Divx decoder does not let me use directshow filters on these movies (such as subtitles).
If you can read this then please at least add an option to disable that codec.

Posted August 06, 2003 by burgul.

Tool version 5
using OS WinXP

Ease of use 9
of 10

Functionality 9
of 10

Value for money 9
of 10

Overall score 9
of 10

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